


All Yours

by spinner33



Series: CM - Close to Canon [30]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: F/M, M/M, Sexual Situations, Spanking, mild bondage, public fight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-28
Updated: 2015-11-28
Packaged: 2018-05-03 19:16:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5303510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spinner33/pseuds/spinner33
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hotch proposes, and Reid panics.  They have a very public fight, and very private make-up sex.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_All of our reasoning ends in surrender to feeling. -- Blaise Pascal_

“Permission to come aboard?”

Reid opened his eyes and glanced up over his knees at Hotch. Aaron was hunched down, peering through the entryway into the small wooden pirate ship. The ship was part of Jack’s new wooden playset, recently purchased and built in their backyard.

The tree limbs above the playset were beginning to soften and sweeten with spring blossoms, although today had been windy and chilly. The nook where Spencer had hidden himself was littered with pink and green petals which drifted around and down every time the winds blew. He shivered with each breeze.

Hotch gracefully maneuvered himself inside the small space. They stared at each other quietly. Well, Hotch stared at Reid, and Reid stared at the tops of his knees, and at unpleasant, distant memories. The silence lasted a minute or so. Aaron finally reached over and touched one of Spencer’s hands.

" ‘Yes’ is of course the preferred response, but ‘no’ is also acceptable. Your dramatic exit scared me. I had to follow. I was worried.”

Reid’s hands fluttered away from Hotch, spasmed in pain, twitched with emotion. Spencer closed his eyes and struggled not to sob.

“Spencer? God, I feel so weird calling you that. Like I’m your father and I’m scolding you.”

Reid sniveled and tucked his head down further. Hotch wondered if that was how Spencer felt too when he called him that, and not in a good way.

“Clearly I have upset you, and that was not my intention. I wanted…. I hoped to make you happy. This is not how I expected you to react to a marriage proposal. I’ve surprised you, and I’m sorry for that. I’ve scared you, and I’m sorry for that too. But you’re going to have to explain to me what’s wrong. I need to know what I’ve done. Have I offended you?” Hotch rambled.

“No,” Reid whispered, shaking. 

“Startled you?”

Reid nodded to the question.

“Not in a good way?” Hotch ventured. 

Reid shook his head no.

“You’re scared. I’m sorry. How can I help?”

“I can’t breathe,” Reid gasped, resting a hand on his heart. Having once seen Reid go into cardiac arrest and die during an overly-stressful situation which had left him too panicked to respond, Hotch understood this wasn’t an affectation on Reid’s part, a plea for sympathy or attention. He rubbed one of Reid’s arms gently from shoulder to elbow and back again.

“Take a deep breath. Relax. It’s okay.” 

The young doctor nodded and complied.

“What am I doing?” Hotch worried. “What’s wrong?”

“Is it all over between us if I say ‘no’?” Reid whimpered as one hand clutched and clawed at the wooden floor.

“No. No, it’s not over,” Hotch soothed. “We can pretend that five minutes ago never happened. I promise we can. I swear we can.”

“I love you. I love this…this…what we have. I love Jack. I love having a family again, but how can you settle for me?”

“What?”

“You can’t be happy with only me, and you won’t be, and I’m afraid for when it’s all over. I need you so much, but how will I ever be enough for you? You could have anyone you wanted. You’ll never be happy with only me. I’m….how….” 

“Reid. Hold on. Whoa. Stop. Okay? Let me reply.”

Hotch put one set of fingertips on Reid’s mouth, and he slowly drew them away. Reid stayed quiet.

“You are all that I want. I am happy with you. See this?” Hotch pointed to his own face and flashed a brilliant smile, which he held tight until Reid managed a half-smile. Hotch held Spencer’s fluttering hand and stroked it gently.

“Please don’t make fun,” Spencer pleaded.

“I would never make fun of you. I need you. I love you. I want you in my life forever. I don’t know how else to explain myself and what I’ve done. I thought asking you to marry me was a natural progression in….”

“I don’t understand what you see in me,” Reid whispered, shaking his head and lowering his eyes.

“Don’t sell yourself short.”

“You can do so much better than me.”

“Stop it. Stop it right now. You are talking about the man I love, and I won’t have it. Don’t make me punch you,” Hotch frowned playfully.

“You don’t love me.”

“What?!” Hotch exclaimed. “Did I not spend half of last night finding just the right spot to…”

Aaron teasingly crooked two fingers together, wiggled them, and grinned foolishly. Reid shivered and unconsciously darted the tip of his tongue over the middle of his bottom lip as he tucked his knees closer. His face was flushing with shame and lust at the memory of the sounds Hotch had coaxed out of him last night. Aaron was remembering the same, and his foolish grin was twisting to the side with undisguised glee. It filled him with such happiness to have pleased Spencer the way he had—past the point of being able to keep that veneer of control over himself. Reid could be so self-conscious, and Hotch found that adorable, but he liked even more when he could make his young lover weak-kneed and scream-y. Hotch leaned across and kissed the top of Reid’s knees.

“Think they can see us from here?” Aaron whispered, cocking a quick glance at the barn before putting his hands on Reid’s knees. “Let me show you how much I love you.”

“No. That is….that is lust. That is need. That is not love,” Reid scolded him. “Sex is a physical necessity for all human beings. Do not confuse chemistry and biology and necessity for emotional love. We have fantastic sex, but that does not mean you love me.”

“How am I supposed to prove my love?” Hotch was smiling again. “Slay a dragon? Rescue you from pirates? Defend your honor from slander or ravishment?”

“You don’t have to prove yourself to me. That’s not what I’m talking about. Marriage – that’s serious for me. Marriage means forever to me. I’m talking forever. I don’t want to be your temporary fix until some beautiful woman with perfect breasts walks into your life and you change your mind and I’m….I….I….am alone again.”

“Listen to me. You are never going to be alone again.”

Hotch crawled over and squeezed into the space next to Reid, pulling him into his arms. The wind rattled and a shower of petals threw themselves all over both of them, catching in their hair.

“I like breasts, but there is not a set in the world that can compare with having you in my life,” Aaron murmured. “You are my forever,” he added, lifting Reid’s chin and caressing his jaw.

“Damn tree,” Reid growled, getting another face full of petals. He gave the overhead limbs a vengeful glance. Hotch blew the petals away from Spencer’s face with a gentle puff of air.

“This isn’t all about me. You. You. You are terrified of commitment, aren’t you? I should have guessed,” Hotch whispered, nuzzling Reid’s neck gently.

“No…I’m….”

“Mm hmm?” Hotch hummed skeptically. “After the way your parents’ marriage turned out? I shouldn’t need to tell you, you are not going to fail as a husband or a father because your father failed you. You aren’t him. You aren’t.”

“I’m so afraid I’ll disappoint you.”

“You are not going to disappoint me,” Hotch sighed. 

“What if I…”

“What if you what?”

“My mom. What if I develop schizophrenia, and I turn into my mother, and I become…”

“Listen to me. Listen. In sickness and in health. I love you now, and I will love you always, no matter what happens. May I put this on you? Please? You don’t have to decide right this minute, okay? Think it over.”

Reid nodded. Hotch slid the golden band onto the ring finger of Reid’s left hand – the words on the interior of the band disappeared, but Reid remembered them and he could see them as he closed his eyes.

_Semper carum (always dear)_

“I wish you would stop shaking. This isn’t a shackle. This is a symbol of eternity,” Hotch murmured, holding Reid’s trembling hand and kissing it again.

“Traditionally, betrothal rings were a tactile promise of financial security…..”

“Reid, stop,” Hotch whispered, smiling, touching his mouth gently to Spencer’s.

“I’m allergic to most metals,” Reid whispered, ducking down away from the kiss for a moment and rubbing his fingers urgently.

“Solid gold is hypo-allergenic,” Hotch murmured, attempting again to kiss Reid.

“Ahhh!”

A shriek from the aperture of the small ship made Hotch and Reid break apart. Small hands reappeared. Then a head. Jack was frowning as he pulled himself back up from the ground. He had dropped a shovel which was covered with dirt and mud. The boy was covered with grime as well. He pushed a small backpack through the opening, and it fell with a heavy thud. A fork dropped and rattled on the wooden floor.

“Are you making babies in my pirate ship?” Jack demanded, horrified.

“Certainly not,” Hotch denied. Reid blushed but didn’t try to deny anything. “What’s in the sack?”

“Treasure,” Jack replied.

Hotch and Reid exchanged a significant glance. Reid was beginning to smile again.

Hotch snatched up the bag and tucked it under his arm. Jack screamed in surprise as Hotch leapt out of the small space in one graceful motion—legs, rear, shoulders, head—before sprinting away towards the house. Reid carefully climbed out, one limb at a time, mindful not to bump his head. He smiled as he watched Hotch running back and forth around the yard with Jack in pursuit, bent on retrieving his bag of stolen loot.


	2. Chapter 2

“OH!” Reid exclaimed, steadying himself as he started to slip. Prentiss grabbed one of his arms, and Morgan got the other.

Reid’s phone was ringing in his pants pocket, but he didn’t have his hands free. He was wearing gloves, and those gloves were dripping brain matter and congealed blood. The phone rang persistently, stopped, then began ringing persistently again. Morgan chuckled at Reid’s dilemma.

Prentiss took a more direct approach. She pulled Spencer upright, and dove her hand into his front pocket. Reid made a horrified, shocked face. Morgan had to step back and take a deep breath to keep from laughing out loud. Hotch was already glaring at them from the rear of the SUV, where he was digging around for more gloves. As far as he was concerned, they were having too much fun at this crime scene. Rossi was one week into a two-week vacation, and JJ was back at the local police station. This was no time for frivolity.

“Dr. Reid’s phone,” Emily said. “He’s right here. Can you hold a moment, please, Dr. Allison?”

Prentiss turned on the speaker, and Reid tilted closer. “Hello, Leslie! How are you?"

"Spencer, when did they give you an assistant?”

“Agent Prentiss is not my assistant,” Reid replied, grinning nervously at Emily.

“You bet your ass I’m not your assistant,” Prentiss growled at Reid, smacking him across his backside. Reid yelped.

“Now you’re in trouble,” Morgan warned maliciously. 

“Where are you, dear boy?” Dr. Allison asked.

“In New Mexico, up to my ankles in decayed matter.” 

“Fleshy bits and all?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“Ah, nothing quite like the smell of the freshly dead. Reminds me of the old days at St. Bart’s. I called to ask for a consult, but it can wait until later. Give me a call back tonight when you have a minute.”

“You sound so excited,” Reid beamed.

“I’ve stumbled onto something curious here. A delicious riddle I think you’ll find to your liking, my dear. I would so love to have you here.”

“Where are you, Leslie?”

“Are you sitting down? Well, no, of course not. I will tell you, for your ears only, that I believe I’m sitting in Queen Meg’s Thorn.”

Reid wobbled again, eyes gleaming. “You found The Thorn?” he whispered. “But that castle is a myth. It’s a daydream. It’s a…”

“I found the foundation of a castle that was rebuilt twice, and the last rebuilding fits the correct time frame and the correct location. I am sitting in the bower, well, what I believe to be the bower, on the queen’s perch, a box of stone carved out of marble, perched right on the execution grounds. And do you know what we’ve found, my lovely boy? We opened the queen’s perch, and it’s filled with bones.”

“Bones? What sort of…”

“Fingers, toes, skulls, arms, a pelvis, several legs, and a silken purse was once filled with, I don’t know, boiled eyes, probably, but the curious thing, my lovely boy, the most curious thing….”

“Yes?” Reid was intrigued.

“They most certainly do not add up to one person, or two, but seem to belong to several individuals of both genders, all ages, all body types. They are bits of pieces of different people.”

“Trophies?!” Reid blurted. “They must belong to Queen Meg’s rivals.”

“I believe Sir Thomas Kirkwood said it best: ‘This queene, she doth have a jalouse streake, for rare it is that her rivales can last in court. By God, they do leake precious life after one single envenoméd glance from Her Majesty. Though woe be more to those whome this queene doth look upon with love. For Queene Meg, to love is to devour, to consume, to destroy’.”

“Oh, my,” Reid gushed, fingers dancing.

“What would you say the odds are we find a bit or two of Sir Thomas among these bones, eh, my boy? Are you curious yet?”

“Curious, Leslie? You gave my brain wood,” Reid squeaked. 

“Call me back later tonight then,” Dr. Allison repeated.

“I will. My love to Rebecca.” 

“Rebecca sends her love back.”

“Be safe, Spencer,” a unisex voice in the background called out. 

“I’ll call tonight,” Reid promised, dodging Hotch’s dark gaze.

“As my interns would say, TTFN,” Dr. Allison replied before disconnecting the line.

Emily set Spencer’s phone to vibrate and slid it back into his front pocket.

“Reid,” Hotch began, pulling on gloves and joining him. Hotch gave Prentiss a sharp look, and she backed away from Reid, climbing out of the pit.

“Sorry, sir,” Spencer cringed.

“You know Bureau policy on private calls during work hours.” 

“Yes, sir. It won’t happen again,” Reid promised.

“In spite of what HE might think, you are not at Dr. Allison’s beck and call.”

“No, sir.”

“You are at my beck and call, Dr. Reid, are you not?” 

“Yes, sir.”

“After hours, you can call whoever you like.”

“Sorry, sir,” Reid said again, bending back down to examine their curious corpse.

“That phone will stay in your damned pocket until we’re done here.”

“Yes, sir.”

Derek exchanged a significant smile with Emily, at least until Hotch looked their direction.


	3. Chapter 3

“So who is this mysterious Dr. Allison who keeps calling you, asking you for consults, getting you to waste your vacation time at archeological digs?” Morgan asked at dinner. Hotch grunted in annoyance and stared for the tenth time at Reid’s bare left hand. What had become of the ring he had put there yesterday?

“Before starting at the Academy, I spent several months with Dr. Allison and his forensic archeological team,” Reid answered, picking at his over-done vegetables and settling for another bite of cornbread. He scratched absently at the middle of his chest. Hotch thought he saw the glint of a gold chain around Reid’s neck. Was he wearing the ring on a chain? Was it making him itch? Or was he touching his chest to show Hotch where he had put the ring, because there was no way that Reid had not noticed how Hotch was staring at his bare hand.

“If Reid hadn’t already made a commitment to the FBI, I’m sure Dr. Allison would have found a way to make that temporary position permanent,” Hotch put in his opinion, gnawing his way through a plate of ribs, giving Reid a look which spoke volumes.

“No. He understood that it was only temporary. Archeology has never a serious pursuit—more of a hobby. I wanted to have fun for a few months, that’s all,” Spencer protested.

“Fun?” Morgan questioned.

“I had time to kill before the FBI would let me begin training, so I spent some time at Oxford. I signed up for Dr. Allison’s dig because he’s one of the world’s foremost forensic archeologists. I stayed later than summer, through most of the fall too actually. I couldn’t start at the Academy until January.”

“Why chose him?” JJ asked.

Reid laughed. “He had a reputation.” 

“What sort of reputation?”

“Dr. Allison is highly respected in his field. I knew I could learn a lot from him. Because of his professional accomplishments, he has been granted the leeway to build his team from the best, the brightest, the most brilliant students available. Instead, by and large, his teams consist almost always exclusively of the female research students and interns.”

“I don’t follow,” Prentiss frowned.

“He surrounds himself with women, and flirts with all of them shamelessly. He calls them his muses. You’d think you were at court with Henry the Eighth when he’s in full form.”

“Why would you want to be part of his team? So you can have a chance to hit on all those beautiful women yourself?” Morgan asked.

“No.”

“Then why?” JJ wondered. She gave Hotch a cautious glance, as Reid did.

“I wanted to learn as much as I could in a short amount of time. I also wanted to be sure I wasn’t going to spend several months in some desert rat hole in the company of an overbearing alpha male who was going to torment me daily, hourly, endlessly about my age, my inexperience, and my lack of masculinity. Dr. Allison, I hoped, would be so busy pursuing his female students that he would not give me a second glance. I would be free to observe, learn, and practice his archeological methods in almost complete anonymity. I was positive he wouldn’t even notice I was there.”

“Which is of course when you learned the hard way that Dr. Allison is actually very gay?” Prentiss asked.

Reid smiled, taking a sip of iced tea, eyes twinkling. He did not answer Emily’s question, but that smile said it all. Maybe the blush that crept over his features said even more.

“How…why….oh,” Morgan nodded. “He surrounds himself with women in order to give off the appearance that he’s a rake, when he isn’t.”

“The female interns, I suspect, pass the truth among themselves, and flock to his digs, knowing full well they would be able to spend their internships safe in the company of someone they could trust to keep his hands to himself. He would flirt with them all, but do nothing more,” Reid said. “They could learn without being judged first on their gender and appearance, and secondly by their skills.”

“How did you fool him into accepting you?” JJ wanted to know.

“I did not submit a picture with my request for an internship. His assistant Rebecca took one look at my application and called me back the same day. Dr. Allison waited in anticipation, so he said.”

“Hoping you would be, what?” Morgan asked.

“A brilliant, gorgeous, buxom young intern with whom he could concoct a discrete but infamous scandal, one sure to buoy his reputation as a skirt-chasing cad.”

“How’d that turn out?” Prentiss grinned.

“He rated me far too young and not nearly buxom enough, but on all other accounts, I suppose I passed,” Reid replied.

“How did he not know you were a man?” Hotch growled. 

“Spencer is a unisex name,” JJ commented.

“I had a fifty-fifty chance of being accepted. I was lucky in that his assistant screens the applications. She put me in the first group, those to be interviewed. Once I was there in Dr. Allison’s office, we talked. He saw that I had read his books, that I knew the source material backwards and forwards. He realized that I could be invaluable to him, and my gender became irrelevant,” Reid rambled.

“Did he keep his hands to himself?” Hotch asked, most pointedly. Spencer took another sip of iced tea, shaking his head.

“Hotch, that is a very personal question, and one I know better than to answer.”

“Which means what exactly?” Hotch growled.

“There is no good answer. If I say yes, you won’t believe me. If I say no, you’ll never let me go on another dig with him. If I don’t answer, you’ll get angry. Well, angrier. What do you want me to say, Hotch?” Reid replied with a quick shrug.

“Your lack of response leads me to assume he did not keep his hands to himself.”

“Are you asking as my SAIC or my partner?” 

“I’m asking out of concern for you.”

“Because you don’t think I know when to keep my legs together unless you’re there to tell me?”

The rest of the team inhaled sharply at Reid’s icy words. Hotch flared up with anger, embarrassment, and jealousy.

“Spencer!” Hotch scolded in a decidedly-fatherly tone.

“I’ll have you know, Aaron, that Dr. Allison conducted himself in the most gentlemanly manner whenever I was in his presence. Whatever he felt about me privately never entered into his professional treatment of me. When we were on-site at the digs, he treated me as a fair and equal member of his team, in spite of my age, in spite of my inexperience, in spite of everything about me that usually annoys everyone else. Your insinuation is the very reason that Dr. Allison goes to such lengths to cover his sexuality. He’s worried people will judge his body of work through the prism of his personal life, and not judge the work on its scholarly merits alone. That’s the problem with alpha males – you view the entire world from your groin.”

“I didn’t mean it like that, Reid,” Hotch grumbled.

Spencer stood up from the table and stormed away. Hotch cleaned the barbeque sauce off his fingers and watched Reid over one shoulder. 

“What the hell did I say?” Hotch asked, getting up from his chair.

“You were being a jerk,” Morgan told him bluntly.

“You insinuated he was sleeping with his professor,” Prentiss said.

“I did not,” Hotch defended.

“Sounds like he was sleeping with his professor,” JJ commented. Hotch nodded in agreement.

Prentiss cautioned. “I wouldn’t follow him if I were you.” 

“Why not?” Hotch asked he turned to go.

“He’s angry,” Morgan said. “Give him some time to cool off or he’s going to throw things at you.”

“I’d let him cool down,” JJ agreed. 

“I’ll be back,” Hotch muttered.

“Like talking to the wall,” Prentiss sighed, watching Hotch walk away and shaking her head at him. Morgan snickered in agreement. JJ shook her head too.


	4. Chapter 4

*flashback*

“Lie still where you are. Exactly where you are. Heat stroke is a dangerous matter for a brilliant mind. We can’t take any chances. I would think as a desert child that you would have better sense.”

Reid came to slowly. He was on his side on a thin mattress layered with towels. He was naked, wet, covered with a thin sheet. He was being cooled by an electric fan oscillating back and forth across the length of his body.

“Open,” Dr. Allison murmured. A piece of ice cube stroked Reid’s lips. Spencer opened his mouth, and the ice chip was slipped inside.

“How is he?” another voice asked from behind Reid. Spencer wondered dizzily if the front of the tent was that direction. Was his naked, wet backside visible to everyone in the dig?

“Terrified, petrified, mortified, I don’t doubt. Please stay, Rebecca, dear. He will find your presence comforting. I really….must…..leave…..yes? But I don’t dare move yet, do I? Oh, how the Lord does tempt us, and what a fool He has made of me. On second thought, perhaps you’d better leave, dear. I should like to talk to Dr. Reid alone. Do you mind?”

“Not at all. I’ll be outside if you need me.”

“Thank you, Rebecca. Can I trouble you to find the young doctor something more appropriate to wear?”

“Yes, sir.”

A hand stroked Spencer’s hair out of his eyes. Another ice chip touched his mouth. He slurped it in, chewing carefully as not to choke.

“Spencer Reid, you may well have destroyed me,” Dr. Allison whispered. There was some playfulness in his voice, a desperate, thin cover over his panic. “I’ll have you know, young man, that I work very hard to cultivate the reputation that no woman is safe within my presence. I do everything in my power to project that front. I make a complete cad of myself. Why, you must ask yourself, do I go to all this trouble?” 

“Why?” Reid echoed.

“So I can avoid finding myself in the position I am in today – with a gorgeous, naked, brilliant young man in my bed and nothing to do but stare at him and hope no one can see how turned on he makes me. I am more than aware of my lack of self-control when it comes to temptation. I therefore avoid temptation. And yet, while I attempt to avoid temptation, it somehow always manages to find me.”

Reid didn’t know what to say, so he kept quiet.

“Maybe I should not have brought you to my damned tent? But I had to remove your clothes, you see? The medical texts are all quiet clear – in the event of heat stroke, you must lower the core body temperature of “monsieur le victime” as quickly as bloody possible.”

Reid opened his eyes and blinked sleepily at his mentor.

“I apologize for the profanity. So unlike me. I find myself in great distress. You don’t believe me?”

Reid shook his head no and closed his eyes again.

“The distressed part, or the gorgeous, naked, brilliant part?

Reid blushed. “Either,” he stammered, shifting his legs and his weight.

“Don’t move. I beg you. You need to lie still. It took me ten minutes to position you properly so that the sheet is tucked under you, and the air from fan is covering your entire body so as to evaporate the water and cool your core temperature, and yet it will not lift the sheet and completely disrobe you for the world to see. If I had a tub, you would be submerged. As it is, I had to manually pour water all over you. So sorry.”

“Where are my clothes?” Reid asked.

“Somewhere,” Dr. Allison answered vaguely, which was really wasn’t what anyone in Reid’s position wanted to hear. “My darling boy, who is the horrid person who erroneously convinced you you aren’t beautiful? I must beg to differ.”

Reid carefully grabbed the sheet and shifted his long legs, curling up on his side and tucking the sheet up to his chin. He was being chilled by the fan now and the room was spinning. He put down a hand to brace himself.

“Don’t worry. The dizziness will pass as soon as you’re cooled off. But you are not leaving this bed. Not until I say so.”

“Thank you,” Spencer whispered. The last thing Reid remembered was being down in a trench in the dig, the sun beating down on him from above, and Dr. Allison moving towards him with a look of panic on his face. The world had gone black after that moment. Dr. Allison must have been the one to carry him back here.

“You are most welcome. But you did not answer my question. Never mind. I will tell you that while you’ve been lying here in a state of dizzy dysfunction, I have asked several interns into the tent under a variety of reasons in order to take a most unscientific poll as to the validity of my supposition that you are indeed a very attractive young man. I have studied their various reactions to you. I even jotted down my observations, which might prove an interesting read if you are so inclined at a later date. Hopefully you’ll be pleased to note that with tousled hair, a slight flush, and no clothes, you are very distracting….nearly irresistible. It’s true. I swear to you. I noted several subjects could not tear their eyes off of you long enough to talk to me. You might consider naked, tousled, and flushed as permanent wardrobe accessories.”

Reid heard himself laugh softly. Dr. Allison’s hand returned to Spencer’s face, armed this time with a wet cloth.

“The way you insist on dressing so atrociously, and the way you mat down your hair, attempting to make yourself look as undesirable as possible, this leads me to the educated conclusion that you do not wish to appear the least bit attractive. You rather loathe the idea, in fact.”

Reid shook his head no. Dr. Allison’s voice was inches away now.

“Therefore I must presume that someone has given you just cause to wish to appear undesirable, and for that, you have my profound sympathies. I will not ask details, my dear boy—it is none of my business. Let me only say this. Your brain is a beautiful treasure, and the package it comes in only raises your inestimable value. You are most desirable, and please don’t let any human being on this planet ever convince you otherwise.”

Reid sniffled softly. Dr. Allison whispered a kiss to his forehead, washed his face.

“Lie still. Rest. When your core temperature is low enough to suit me, Rebecca will find you something more suitable to our current environment. Brace yourself. She is inordinately fond of romance novels. Your wardrobe for the rest of the summer will involve a hat, light colors, khaki pants, desert boots, and no doubt, light, billowy, transparent white shirts. I hope you can stomach it. Pretend you’re trapped in an Agatha Christie novel if it helps.”

Reid sniffled again. Dr. Allison stroked his face and rubbed his neck, tucking the wet cloth under his chin.

“Come now. It’s not all bad. I’m sure you’ll be quite fetching in whatever she brings. You won’t be able to help yourself.”

“Thank you,” Spencer murmured softly.

“You’re welcome. Did you expect I would leave you lying in the sun to perish?”

“No.”

“Even if I were so inclined, I wouldn’t want those FBI men to show up again, bristling with guns, demanding to know what I let happen to you. Especially Agent Hotchner. I don’t want to see you in another damned sweater for the rest of the summer. I can’t have you fainting from the heat every afternoon, swaddled in six layers of wool. Have pity on the sheep. I look at your sweaters, and I cannot help but imagine how many naked lambs there must be because of you.”

Spencer shifted to his back, and let go of the edge of the sheet in order to rub his sun-scorched eyes. Dr. Allison’s long hands snagged the sheet somewhere around Reid’s knees and pulled it upward again.

“I will leave you to rest. The ice is here. The water is there. A freshly-chilled gin and tonic with lime is right here in your hand. There you are. What exquisite hands you have. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go find a quiet place to have a very private wank. Please forgive me for being so uncouth as to say so. Perhaps we could reconvene when the sun goes down? Could we share a civilized dinner? You will dress appropriately. I will behave appropriately. Rebecca will no doubt join us. Let us all pretend the last two hours were the figment of our delirious imaginations. Shall we?”

“Yes, please,” Spencer whispered. 

“Oh, good. As I said, rest.”


	5. Chapter 5

“I didn’t mean to intrude into your personal life, and if you don’t want to tell me about your relationship with Dr. Allison, I completely understand.”

Hotch left the communication path open. Reid stood on the balcony of their hotel room and looked out over the desert below, smiling sadly at distant memories. He was fingering Hotch’s ring on the chain around his neck, licking at the chain, touching the smooth love token to his lips. When Aaron realized Reid was kissing and licking his ring, his heart jumped with emotion.

Hotch wondered what was going through Reid’s mind as Spencer turned to give him a curious glance before turning to face the desert once more.

From what point should you consider yourself in a relationship of some permanence and seriousness? After the first time you have slept together? That wouldn’t do between himself and Hotch, Reid knew, as he had been oblivious-drunk, and Hotch had felt guilty ever since because he had given into temptation.

Were you a couple after you have spent every waking moment in each other’s company over a week? A few weeks? After you have cared for each other through sickness and injury? There were circumstances where non-couples would do these things. The entire BAU team spent so time in each other’s company that this could not be used as a benchmark. They cared for each other like a family.

Were you a couple when you can spend your days arguing angrily over dead bodies and unsubs’ motives and take-out menus, and yet wake up wrapped in each other’s arms, nuzzling, stroking, whispering each other’s name? When you can’t bear the idea of not being in physical contact with the other person, no matter the situation how public or private?

Are you a couple after you move in together and share a big house, a cat, a son, a daughter, the bills, the grocery shopping? When you have added his name to all your financial accounts? Your emergency contact sheet? That’s pretty serious. Isn’t that saying something about commitment?

Is it when you humor him and let him hold the remote control when you watch tv together? You’ve never told him how cute you find it when he needs to hold the remote, because then you know you would have to argue yet again about his desperate need to control everything around him.

Is it after you have nearly flattened his face with a tire swing? When he has to stay in the hospital for a week, but you can carry on, take care of his son, handle work, and home, and homework, and hospital visits? When you know his medical history forward and backward, and you find yourself arguing with the medical staff about their choice of medications for him?

Are you a couple when you can spend three thousand dollars on an elaborate backyard playset for his son, and the only thing that truly bothers your partner is the fact he didn’t get to put the thing together?

You are most definitely past the point of wondering if you are in fact a couple when he will buy a ring, personalize it, and present it to you on a perfectly-normal Sunday morning, when you’re in the kitchen cooking eggs and bacon exactly how he likes them, and you’re thinking about making pancakes too, when he sneaks up behind you, and puts his arms around your waist, and slips the ring on your hand.

You must of course consider yourselves a couple after you share a frenzied, quick, lustful bit of nookie in the office at work, and redress in a blazing hurry, and realize minutes later in the conference room that you have switched ties, and yet the reversal does not clash with either outfit? So then you realize you dress to match each other? Is it when even after you realize you’re wearing his tie, and he’s wearing your tie, you don’t bother to switch back, because it turns you on to wear his clothes in front of everyone else? Wearing his tie in front of others is as close as you have gotten him to putting a collar on you and lead you around.

Hotch wished he knew why Reid was beginning to smile the way he was, but he was almost afraid to ask. Spencer blinked away tears as he turned around on the balcony and stared at Hotch. He had the ring clenched between his teeth, and he stared at Aaron with hazel eyes for a moment before he pulled the ring out from between his lips and let it rest on his chest, dangling on a golden chain.

“Hotch, I don’t believe it’s unreasonable of you to ask me questions about my previous relationships, but you’re crossing the line between work life and private life. You asked a very personal question in a very public setting,” Reid blushed.

“I’m sorry,” Hotch intoned.

“Maybe I don’t want everyone on the team to know I had a romantic fling with my archeology professor. They will undoubtedly draw parallels between that situation and our current romantic involvement. You’re going to shatter Morgan’s delusion that I’m a sexless hermit with a limited carnal history.”

“Well, you didn’t have to insinuate that I have control issues,” Aaron growled.

“I did not insinuate. You do have control issues,” Reid tested Hotch with a pert smile that went straight to Aaron’s groin and his temper with equal measure.

“I can’t help it! I can’t bear the idea of that nasty little man putting his hands all over you.”

“Dr. Allison is not a ‘nasty little man’,” Reid defended hotly. Again, Hotch’s groin and his temper warred. “Ask me whatever you want to know,” Spencer relented. He always did. Hotch’s heart melted whenever Reid acquiesced to him.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. I promise I’ll be honest, whether you like it or not.” 

“Did you sleep with Dr. Allison?”

“Yes. But before you get angry with him, you should know that he didn’t seduce me. I seduced him. If you must be angry, be angry with me.”

“Why would you seduce him?” Aaron frowned.

“He was kind to me, and I was desperate for his approval. I thought he wanted me.”

“Speaking as objectively as I can, Reid, because of your strained relationship with your father, you do have a tendency to crave approval from authority figures, and you seem to need sexual approval almost as much as emotional approval.”

“I can’t believe you’re at all surprised that I had a relationship with Dr. Allison,” Spencer said, not acknowledging or denying Hotch’s observation.

“I am somewhat surprised,” Hotch admitted. 

“In what way?”

“I always thought Gideon was the first man you slept with.” 

Reid took a step back, eyes wide. He shook his head no. “I never slept with Jason Gideon,” he flamed bright red as he spoke.

“Never?” Hotch blinked in surprise.

“I never slept with Gideon. I did make a pass at him once, but that's it.”

“How did that go?”

“He slapped me, and we both started crying.”

“Not well then?” Hotch wished that revelation didn’t fill him with such happiness. He hoped it wasn’t showing on his face, but he was afraid it was because of how Reid’s eyes narrowed at him.

“Hotch, sex with me was the very last thing on this planet that Gideon ever wanted.”

“Were you upset with him?”

“No. I was embarrassed I had misunderstood him, that’s all. Gideon wanted a surrogate son, and I was so willing to oblige him in anything he wanted from me. I thought he wanted sex from me too, or I would have never made a pass at him. I thought it was what he wanted because…..”

“Because other authority figures in your life have wanted sex from you, and you’ve obliged them because you were desperate for their approval.”

“Yes,” Reid nodded reluctantly. “I told you once before. There is something about me that seems to attract people who don’t always have my best interests in mind. There really is something about me that says it’s okay to take advantage.”

“Like I did?” Hotch looked overcome with guilt once more.

“Not like you,” Reid insisted. “You care about me. You and Dr. Allison are very much alike.”

“How long were you in a relationship with Dr. Allison?”

“It wasn’t a relationship. It was sex. It was honestly as much a tutorial as the archeology was. We were only involved while I was in Oxford for that summer and fall. He and Rebecca are very happy together. He slept with me only after Rebecca granted him permission, and… um…. um…..”

“Have you have slept with both the doctor and his assistant?” Hotch frowned.

Reid blushed. “Yes.”

“-“ Hotch was speechless. At least Reid had the grace to be embarrassed at the admission.

“I promise you that I am not running off to Dr. Allison’s digs for wild sex in exotic locations,” Reid blurted when Hotch stared at him with wide eyes.

“But you said he was gay. How could Dr. Allison possibly be happy in a relationship with Rebecca?”

“Because Rebecca is Robert when they’re at home, and Robert is Rebecca when they’re at work. Robert is a transvestite.”

“Oh….” Hotch said, realization dawning in his face. Reid smirked.

“I love watching you think. It’s so adorable,” Reid mused. Hotch scowled, sliding a hand onto Spencer’s waist. “Oh, goody.”

“What?”

“Can we have makeup sex now?” Reid whispered boyishly.

“Just for that, I should bend you over this balcony railing and spank you, remind you who you belong to, make you scream my name,” Hotch growled.

“No one’s stopping you,” Reid replied impishly.

Both big hands came around Reid’s waist and started unbuckling his belt. Reid captured the hands with his. He was dragged backwards most ardently.


	6. Chapter 6

“I’m sorry I am such a jealous alpha male all the time,” Aaron whispered, unbuttoning Spencer’s shirt, nuzzling the warm golden chain and licking through the center of the ring to touch his skin.

“I love that you’re protective.”

“Protective? It’s okay. You can say it. I’m possessive,” Hotch whispered, dropping Reid’s shirt to the floor, spinning him around, and walking him backwards towards the bed.

“You are possessive,” Spencer echoed, arms curling up around Aaron’s shoulders. Hotch kissed the perimeter of the golden chain, then nipped at Reid’s earlobe. “But I like to be possessed,” he added. Aaron was undoing Spencer’s trousers, pushing them down, letting them pool on the carpet too.

“I had the worst dream about you,” Hotch admitted, sliding his fingers inside Reid’s boxers and pushing them slowly down his hips, down his thighs, and away. He carefully eased Spencer back against the bedcovers, and began to kiss and nuzzle over his skin. “You got kidnapped by an unsub, and you were gone for so long. I was so worried I’d never see you again. You said you were afraid of losing me, but I’m just as afraid of losing you,” he murmured in between slow licks and kisses that were making Spencer burn and blush and pant softly.

“I’m ….not…going….anywhere…” Reid stammered as he closed his eyes and put his fingers through Hotch’s hair. Aaron ventured further south.

“So beautiful this way,” Hotch whispered, tracing his tongue delicately along the tip of Reid’s erection. “Tell me you’re mine.”

Reid cried out when Aaron mouthed kisses along delicate, silky skin.

“…all yours….” Spencer gasped loudly. “Don’t stop…” 

“Where’s your bag?” Hotch whispered quietly.

Reid sat up with a sudden cry, nearly knocking Hotch off the bed. “I left it at the table,” Spencer gulped.

“That’s what you get for another dramatic exit,” Hotch grinned. “You really must stop storming away when you get angry or upset. It’s very childish. What?”

Reid was attempting to get off the bed. Hotch held him where he was.

“I ….have to…go…mmmm. My bag…..Hotch….”

“You may not have noticed, but you are naked,” Hotch grinned, fingering and thumbing one nipple and sucked on the other one.

“My bag. I need my bag,” Reid whimpered. Hotch rolled his eyes.

“Relax, Linus. I’ll go get your blanket,” Hotch teased him.

“You don’t understand….” Reid whimpered again. Hotch nipped at his cheek.

“What don’t I understand? You have a pathological attachment to that satchel.”

“Pathological?” Reid bristled.

“Oh, baby, pathological doesn’t even scratch the surface,” Hotch chuckled. “I’m going to have to wean you off of that thing for your own good.”

“I have something in there for you.” 

“A surprise?”

“A present for only you to see,” Reid quivered.

“What kind of present?” Aaron wondered with a smile.

“I….I have to get my bag before….” Reid shivered. “I….oh….”

“Stay,” Hotch ordered, standing up from the bed and pointing one finger at Reid, touching him on the nose. “Stay. I will get your bag.”

Aaron left the room, straightening his hair and his tie and his clothes. He returned inside of three minutes, carrying Reid’s bag against his chest. He was smiling. He closed and locked the door. Reid reached for his beloved satchel, and Hotch held it back from him.

“You are so lucky,” Aaron murmured.

“Why?” Reid whispered. Hotch dangled the bag at him by the handle, and the young doctor quickly snatched it close, hugging it to his bare chest.

“Prentiss had your bag, but Morgan was trying to talk her into giving it to him. She was this close to knuckling to the pressure,” Aaron reported, pinching two fingers together.

Reid paled, hugging his bag even tighter, putting his cheek against it.

“What were you worried they might see?” Hotch asked, looming in front of Reid, kissing the top of his head, nosing through his wild hair. Spencer slipped a hand inside and tugged out a velvet pouch, which he handed shyly to Hotch. He tucked his head downward, turning pink. “My present?” Aaron asked.

“Mm hmm,” Reid nodded, not raising his eyes.

Hotch had to smile. He smoothed one hand over the pouch and his face wrinkled with curiosity and amusement.

When Reid had managed to get this? Overnight delivery? There had been a box on the front stoop this morning which had quickly vanished between the front porch and the car. Reid had smiled all the way to work, to the plane, during the flight, hugging his bag close.

“Such an odd shape,” Hotch commented. “Can I open it?”

“Not until later,” Reid said. He opened his satchel and motioned for Hotch to put the pouch back in. Hotch relinquished the pouch, and took the opportunity to let his fingers linger inside the satchel.

“Do you have….”

Hotch’s fingers landed on a tube of lube, and he almost laughed.

“You got anything else useful in here?” Aaron asked, rummaging around between folders and files.

“Depends on what you need,” Reid whispered in reply. 

“Blindfold?” Hotch asked playfully.

Reid pulled the bag away and put it down on the floor beside the bed. Scooting to the side of the mattress, he reached up to Hotch’s neck, untying his tie and pulling it gently away from his collar.

“No. I have other plans for this,” Aaron purred, pulling the long, black tie away from Reid and placing it on the end of the bed.

Spencer’s thin fingers reached for Hotch’s belt. He unlaced it, undid the buckle, and gently pulled it loose from his trousers. Reid put the leather between his teeth and lifted his chin towards Hotch, offering him the belt like a faithful hound. Hotch felt like his cock was going to bust through his boxers.

“Got plans for that too,” Aaron whispered, putting the belt with his tie. Reid leaned back on both arms and stared quietly up at Aaron, awaiting his next command. Hotch bent to reach Reid’s right ear.

“Get up on the bed. Lie down on your stomach. Put your hands above your head.”

Reid groaned lustfully just from the tickle of Aaron’s deep voice in his ear. He was paralyzed momentarily with the promise of what was to come.

“Now,” Hotch growled. Reid shuddered and stayed put.

“Make me,” Spencer mouthed, his lips teasing against Hotch’s cheek. Aaron inhaled deeply and took a grip on both Reid’s wrists with one hand. He flattened Reid to the bed and made quick work of putting Spencer exactly where he wanted him.

“Stay,” Hotch commanded, climbing backwards off the bed, pulling Spencer’s legs open to opposite corners, caressing the backs of his thighs, the backs of his calves, kissing gently over the soles of his feet, tickling his toes with a tease of tongue and teeth. Reid giggled sweetly, coiling up tightly out of reflex. “As you were,” Hotch ordered. Reid uncoiled his long limbs and stretched out once more.

Hotch retrieved his long black tie, and moved to the head of the bed, lacing the fabric carefully and loosely around Reid’s wrists, pulling them one at a time behind his back. Spencer was already starting to rub his hips against the mattress, groaning quietly into the pillows.

“Stay,” Hotch murmured, putting a hand on the small of Reid’s back and stilling his hips. He pulled off his own white shirt and threw it onto the floor with Reid’s discarded clothes. He tugged off his trousers and boxers, and threw them aside as well. Aaron picked up his belt and jangled the buckle to see Reid’s reaction.

Spencer’s breathing increased—he was almost panting with anticipation.

“Up on your knees,” Hotch commanded. Reid drew in a shivering breath and raised himself up as ordered, balancing on his shoulders and knees. Aaron moved to the side of the bed and put one hand against the small of Spencer’s back, rubbing in slow, small circles. “Tell me. I know you must remember. How many times did you sleep with Dr. Allison?”

“Um…mmm….” Reid moaned.

“Tell me,” Aaron drew the words out deeply. 

“Um….”

When the belt connected with his backside, Reid yelped.

“Tell me,” Aaron repeated. “Be specific. How many times did that nasty man have you bent over his bed, or his desk, or his knee?”

“Um….ahnn….” Reid delayed and got another stroke.

“No response then? Shall I guess? Will you stop me when I get close?” Aaron wondered, giving Reid another stroke, this one harder, more meaningful, more demonstrative of the jealousy burning in his heart. Reid’s yelp of pain was loud enough that Hotch worried that others would hear. Out of necessity, he retrieved Reid’s tie off the floor and brought it back to the bed, wrapping it around Spencer’s mouth and silencing his cries of pain and pleasure.

Five strokes with the belt had Reid trembling. Ten strokes, and he was grunting, thrusting his hips obscenely into the mattress. Fifteen strokes, and he was sobbing happily, arching up to meet each lash.

Aaron couldn’t take it anymore. He dropped the belt by the bed and climbed up behind Reid. Hotch smoothed pre-cum over his aching erection, and yanked Reid’s hips into a bruising grip. He pushed against Spencer’s unprepared entrance, mindful not to hurt him too much, just enough to make him happy. It was Reid who thrust himself back against Hotch’s body. Aaron moved backwards as well, concerned about hurting him too much. Reid groaned in protest, whimpering, begging even with his mouth covered.

Hotch searched the mattress for the tube of lubrication, smeared himself generously, then tossed the tube aside on the side table. He took Reid’s hips once more, and moved himself into position. Spencer reacted again, thrusting himself backwards hungrily. Hotch moved forward this time, and slid his hardness inside Spencer’s tight, hot body.

Reid cried out and began shuddering as he climaxed. Hotch continued thrusting, spreading and stretching Reid further open with each thrust, riding through the quivering, shaking convulsions he could read so well in his partner. Reid met each thrust with a reply groan and buck of his thin hips, until he didn’t have the strength left to move.

Reid melted into Hotch’s grip, leaving himself entirely at his lover’s mercy. Aaron took him greedily, thrusting harder, faster, until he was certain he had satisfied Reid’s darkest desire to feel love and pain in one touch. Aaron came with a vengeful growl, seizing Reid’s shoulder in a bite he would remember for times to come when he might be tempted to stray from Aaron’s bed.

Once he had regained his senses and could move again, Hotch pulled out of Spencer and let him slide—weak, shaking, and limp – to the mattress. Aaron untied Reid’s bound hands, tossing the tie aside. He turned Reid over on the bed, and tugged his legs apart again. He slid three fingers inside Spencer and watched his face light up with renewing passion.

Sleepy, half-lidded hazel eyes were watching him with a mixture of anticipation and worship before they closed tight. Hotch nestled closer, pulling the tie away from Reid’s mouth, teasing their lips together as he traced and caressed Reid’s pleasure spot once again. Reid was rolling his eyes back in his head. He clutched at the bed covers with both long hands, fingers coiling. Spencer was thrusting against Aaron’s hand, groaning, pleading, whimpering desperately.

“Do you like that?” Aaron asked, bending down and kissing Spencer’s forehead, stroking away his hair. Reid nodded in reply, turning his head to one side and groaning out hoarsely.

Hotch gave a small smile, moving down between Reid’s legs, licking and sucking thick body fluids off of his skin. Spencer shuddered and gasped for breath. Reid’s hands went across Hotch’s shoulders. Short nails dug into his skin, caressed through his hair. Spencer tilted his head back, crying out loudly when Hotch enveloped his cock with warm, wet heat.

It didn’t take long for Hotch to work Reid up to another orgasm. Spencer was feeling fireworks and lightning under his skin and through his veins. He hoped the insanely-loud moaning he was hearing was not his own. He lost consciousness briefly when he climaxed, and when he came around, Aaron was smiling above him, wearing that wicked, gleeful grin of his which said he was so proud of himself for what he could do to Spencer.

“Sadist,” Reid rasped lovingly.

Hotch lay down between Reid’s legs, rubbing their sexes together, nestling his solid, muscular body against his lover’s slighter frame. Aaron dotted a line of kisses from the hollow of Spencer’s throat to his right ear, up behind, slowly around, dipping the tip of his tongue inside and delighting in the shudder that ran through Reid. His target was drifting sideways to the left for some unknown reason before pulling back to center once more. What was Reid reaching for?

Hotch felt a velvet pouch bump against his back. He paused, and Reid dragged the pouch between them, dropping it on his own chest above his heart, on top of the golden ring that Hotch had given him.

“Mary….” Spencer whispered.

“Who the hell is Mary?” Hotch demanded. Reid smiled sheepishly at Aaron.

“Marry me?” he clarified timidly.

“Oh!” Hotch exclaimed, his face lighting up with excitement. He quickly put on a fake frown. “You’ve got a lot of fucking nerve, lecturing me about confusing lust and sexual desire with love.”

“Marry me, goddamn it,” Reid repeated, frowning back petulantly.

“You bet I’ll marry you. What’s more, I’ll get the right kind of ring this time— one I can buckle around your throat,” Aaron menaced.

“Oh, Hotch,” Spencer melted happily, his eyes lighting up. “Open it.”

Hotch balanced on his right elbow and undid the velvet pouch with his left hand. A thin black cord fell out first, and pulled along a simple, black leather collar. The golden buckle jangled as Aaron caressed the collar with a mixture of dread and elation.

“All yours,” Spencer whispered, closing his eyes and offering his throat.


End file.
